In the 21st century, you have to think not only about how to record a good song but also about how to correctly present it in an overloaded information field.
Remember that content is everything
Unfortunately, nowadays it is not necessary to count only on music and on the fact that it will sell itself. It often happens like this: an artist comes with a small budget for the promo of his new track and wants to promote it, but at the same time does not think at all about what is happening on his own resources. And there, as a rule, everything is not bright enough: there is not enough individual design, constant publications, interesting activities.
A person has only a second to decide whether to stop or scroll further. And this decision comes even before he clicked on “Play”. What can hook him? Perhaps an unusual text eyeliner (obviously not “You’ve never heard this before”) or a bright cover. Or perhaps a photo of the performer, if he is already of interest with his appearance.
If you have successfully overcome the first stage and the listener, having clicked on the song and proceeded to your page he must be kept. What can you offer him besides music? A vivid image? Cool texts? Welcome widget? Photos that are presented not just in the style of “This is our photo session”, but as a separate art object? You decide. Each of these thoughtful moves increases the chances that one of them will work in your favour. Think about content that will sell your music, not music that will sell you.
Learn by yourself
For better or worse, today it is important not only for a manager but also for a musician to dive into the details of advertising processes. Of course, if you operate with solid budgets, everything can be outsourced, but how exactly will you control your contractors? Can you figure out if they did a good or bad campaign? Can you do the analysis yourself?
You shouldn’t rely solely on sowing on social media. And if you lay a part of the budget for such activities, you need to clearly discuss the forecast values, as well as all the graphic materials that will accompany the selections or tracks. Sometimes such large-scale postings are made for a huge mass audience that likes everything and does not distinguish one post from another. Your task is not to merge with everyone, but to stand out from the rest.
Gather your audience
Remember that your social media accounts do not belong to you, and social networks are constantly changing. The constant change of smart feed algorithms, when the reach of communities is being cut down, and the admins are constantly trying to be ahead of the curve in order to somehow catch your eye – and you realize that even reaching your audience is more and more difficult every time, not to mention about the new ones. It is not so important how many thousands of subscribers you have if in fact your news is seen by less than 20% of their number. That is why it is worth thinking about the future.
The more opportunities you have to interact with your fan databases, the better. Having worked in this direction for several years, you will be able to create a stable fan base in every city of the country and easily use it when you need it.
It would seem, how can an artist get promoted on Instagram? It’s just a social network of photos and videos! But you have the ability to write text descriptions for posts, put relevant hashtags, upload a video consisting of a cover and a playing part of the song, in the end. It is important to understand that an artist of a musical genre is, first of all, a celebrity and only then a performer of songs. It is not just that large production companies first work out the image and image of their artists and only then they are engaged in the creation of material and its promo.
Instagram is a powerful tool for shaping the image of the performer and public opinion about him. Read how to use Instagram stories to take your brand to the next level.
Spotify and other streaming platforms
Surprisingly, not so many artists think of that method when it comes to music promotion. And that’s a shame. You might know that most of the people listen to music through one of the streaming services. And new artists, songs are always found there. Your music must be presented there so anyone can find it easily. If you want to gain popularity you need to make it to the playlists. For Spotify, unique monthly listeners matter a lot as well. You can learn how to get more unique listeners here.
Wrapping-up
From this article you`ve got an idea of how you can help your music promotion. When you do something right, you always have opportunities to complete the necessary tasks. In addition to the sound and hit itself, the success of the track is influenced by the seasonality, the abundance of other releases on the market, the secondary nature of the material, the artist’s personality, the support of the media environment and many other factors. It is important to move forward, drawing conclusions from past campaigns from release to release, as well as to systematically grow a fan base, trying to hit exactly the target audience.
